n Bahrain, the Prime Minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has ordered an immediate probe into the blaze which gutted the Isa Town Souq in the capital Manama on Sunday.

Nearly 450 shops were completely destroyed and goods worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost in the major fire. No casualties have been reported in the incident.

Firemen took more than five hours to bring the blaze under control. The fire broke out last evening at one store and quickly spread to the rest of the market, causing traders to flee with whatever they could salvage.

Bahrain Air, has cancelled flights from Bahrain capital Manama to Trivandrum for the next five days. The Airline said it is canceling the flights since it has not yet received written approval to fly to the city.

The privately-owned company, which launched services to Thiruvananthapuram on 15th March this year, was also forced to abandon a flight earlier this week, which left 140 Indian passengers stranded at Bahrain airport.

Travellers booked on the cancelled flights have since been urged to contact their booking agencies or the Bahrain Air call centre for refunds.

A statement posted on the Airline’s website read, “Bahrain Air regrets to inform its valued passengers that flights between Bahrain and Trivandrum on 4,5,6,7 and 8th of April have been cancelled due to not yet receiving written approvals from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in India.”